Action-Ed’s “Making Education Meaningful” Blog

“Creating a culture of learning” has been an educational catch-phrase for several years now. I’ve heard it spoken many times in classrooms, staff meetings, and conferences, More often than not, though, I’ve observed teachers roll their eyes whenever the phrase is uttered.

We all know learning is important, right? We would all like to work with people who were excited to teach and learn, right? Then why is creating a culture of learning – or getting people to buy into a culture of learning – so difficult?

RUMINATIONS

Now I don’t know this for certain, but I’m willing to bet that a culture of learning  has more to do with the quality of relationships in a workplace community than anything else. I say this because I truly believe that learning is an intrinsic and intimate activity – we learn on our own and for our own reasons. This means that creating a culture of real learning requires genuine – and shared – interest and curiosity.

Think about it: would you openly and willingly share that something you’ve been wondering about with someone you didn’t like, or trust, or value?

No way! Absolutely not!

So, I think it’s quite simple:

Before you can create a genuine culture of learning, the people in the culture have to like and respect each other … genuinely.

So assuming this is right, I think three things are needed to foster good relationships of any kind: Space, Time, and Compassionate Effort. The more time we spend with people in particular spaces, the more likely it is that we will develop relationships with them. No space to spend time with one another also decreases the chance of relationships being developed.  And even if you have an abundance of Space and Time, if the key people in the culture and/or community don’t make a Compassionate Effort to get to know the other members, there’s no chance of developing a culture of concern, which means fewer quality relationships will be developed.

Few relationships developed equals no chance of creating a culture of learning because people won’t care!

SPACE ~
For starters, the nature of teaching is very insular. We’re all in our own rooms all day long with children and/or pubescent young adults. Not ideal for developing adult relationships. Can much be done about changing the layout of your school? Yes, but not realistically. Let’s move to Time.

TIME ~
Lots can be done with time and – by and large – there is NO time in public schools. Our students get dropped off 15-20 minutes before the bell rings. Lunch hours are short. Our students race to get back on the bus right after school. To be frank, the average public school schedule is a whirlwind. But you can’t change architectural structures as easily as you can change time structures, so I think TIME is a great ingredient principals and district leaders can tinker with.

I have no concrete suggestions on how time should be used/designed differently, but rather some general ideas.

1. The more time can be manipulated to get staff rubbing elbows with one another while engaging in fun and meaningful activities, the greater the chance you’ll see positive, healthy relationships develop.
2. When that happens, the more likely the people in your school want to be a part of what’s happening, to take pride in that something, and to willingly and openly share what they’ve wondered about and learned along the way.

COMPASSIONATE EFFORT ~

I believe, however, that wanting to develop positive relationships with your staff-mates is the most important factor in creating a culture of learning.

The “indifferent cows” (picture above) you work with are indifferent about what others are learning not because of what others are learning, but who the other people are.

If the leaders don’t make a Compassionate Effort to get to know the people in their community, the people won’t care. Why would any of us care about what others are learning if we didn’t care about them personally.

It’s simple really.